UC-NRLF 


HE  /PACIFIC 
JNlf  ARIAN 
SCHOOL  for  the 
MI  NISTRY 

BERKELEY,  CALIFORNIA 


A  RECORD  OF  TEN  : 
YEARS'  WORK 
1904-1914 


BY 

THE  PRESIDENT 
EARL  MORSE  WILBUR 


A  RECORD  of  TEN  YEARS' 
WORK  and  AN  OUTLOOK 
TOWARD  THE  FUTURE 


(Eead  at   the  Pacific  Unitarian  Conference  at 
Portland,  May  12,  1914.) 

ORIGIN  OF   THE  SCHOOL. 


T  the  session  of  the  Pacific 
Unitarian  Conference  held 
in  Portland  in  September, 
1889,  twenty-five  years  ago, 
the  Rev.  Charles  W.  Wendte 
of  Oakland  offered  a  proposition  for 
the  establishment  of  a  Training  School 
for  Ministers  at  Berkeley,  the  seat  of 
the  University  of  California;  and  be- 
fore the  Conference  adjourned  resolu- 
tions were  unanimously  adopted  and  a 
committee  appointed  to  give  the  matter 
practical  effect.  This  was  the  first 
outward  move  for  the  realization  of 
hopes  and  plans  which  even  then  had 
already  for  over  ten  years  been  earn- 
estly cherished  by  certain  individuals. 
Before  the  next  session  of  the  Confer- 
ence the  plan  had  been  put  into  work- 


939058 


', SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 


?&ape,  and  h#d,  fyeen  cordially  en- 
dorsed by  tlie  National  Conference.  Of 
the  obstacles  encountered  within  the  fol- 
lowing two  or  three  years  in  attempting 
to  put  the  plan  into  operation,  it  is  not 
necessary  here  to  speak.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that,  though  it  was  never  forgotten  or  in 
the  least  given  up  by  those  who  had  it 
most  at  heart,  the  whole  matter  had  to 
be  abandoned  for  over  ten  years.  It  was 
not  until  1904  that  it  was  again  taken 
up  and  that  effective  steps  were  taken 
for  establishing  what  has  since  come  to 
be  known  as  the  Pacific  Unitarian  School 
for  the  Ministry.  And  now  that  ten 
years  more  have  elapsed  since  the  found- 
ing of  the  school,  and  the  Conference 
is  again  meeting  where  the  idea  of  it 
was  first  publicly  discussed,  it  is  a  suit- 
able time  to  render  an  account  of  what 
the  school  has  been  able  to  accomplish 
during  this  period  of  its  infancy,  and 
to  ask  what  the  churches  may  fairly  ex- 
pect of  it,  or  be  expected  to  do  for  it, 
in  the  years  to  come. 

REASON    FOR    THE    SCHOOL. 

It  has  more  than  once  been  asked  by 
persons  who  had  only  a  hazy  notion 
of  the  conditions  and  history  of  our 
cause  on  this  Coast,  why,  with  no  more 

2 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

churches  than  we  yet  have  here,  we 
need  have  a  divinity  school  here  at  all. 
So  far  as  this  Conference  is  concerned, 
the  grounds  were  twenty-five  years  ago 
maturely  discussed  and  considered  suf- 
ficient. But  the  general  answer  is  that 
our  churches  here  are  otherwise  too  far 
from  the  source  of  supply  for  their  pul- 
pits.' It  is  as  though  our  New  England 
churches  had  been  obliged  during  the 
first  two  generations  of  our  movement 
there,  to  have  all  their  ministers  sent 
out  from  old  England.  And  the  specific 
answer  is  found  in  the  experience  of  our 
church  work  here.  For  example,  in  the 
'nineties,  after  a  period  of  great  mis- 
sionary opportunity,  and  up  to  the  presr 
ent  day  unparalleled  church  extension, 
twenty-two  organized  churches*  on  this 
Coast  were  obliged  to  suspend  activities, 
and  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  for 
sheer  inability  to  obtain  a  minister.  The 
fact  that  we  have  since  regained  eight 
of  these  stations,  and  shall  in  time  re- 
gain the  most  of  the  rest,  does  nothing 
to  weaken  the  argument  for  the  import- 
ance of  a  reliable  local  source  of  supply. 
Hardly  a  church  on  the  Coast  more  than 
five  years  old  but  has  first  or  last  had 

*List  in  THE  PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  for  April, 
1912,  page  172. 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

this  argument  pressed  upon  it.  Again 
and  again  a  church  losing  its  minister 
has  had  to  wait  for  months,  and  see  its 
work  run  down,  while  the  East  was 
scoured  by  correspondence  for  a  man 
who  might  come  out,  but  even  when  he 
had  at  length  arrived  and  been  settled, 
without  opportunity  for  the  mutual  trial 
which  a  candidacy  affords,  might  not 
prove  to  be  at  all  the  man  wanted,  or 
might  not  find  himself  at  all  suited  to 
his  field.  Few,  if  any,  have  had  the 
opportunity  of  knowing  so  well  as  I 
how  many  of  these  misfits  there  have 
been.  T»hey  were  largely  unavoidable  in 
the  circumstances;  but  had  there  been 
an  adequate  source  of  local  supply,  they 
might  have  been  largely  avoided.  The 
problem  is  not  by  any  means  solved, 
but  the  establishing  of  the  Pacific  Uni- 
tarian School  was  the  first  step  toward 
a  solution,  and  every  stage  in  its  growth 
will  make  the  problem  less  acute. 

EARLY   HANDICAPS. 

Before  going  on  now  to  relate  what 
the  school  has  thus  far  accomplished,  let 
me  first  sketch  a  proper  mental  back- 
ground against  which  to  regard  its  work, 
by  reminding  you  that  ten  years  ago 
it  began  at  zero.  It  had  not  a  single 

4 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

student  in  sight;  it  had  not  a  book  for 
a  library;  it  had  not  a  dollar  of  endow- 
ment in  hand  or  definitely  promised;  it 
had  no  building:  the  school  consisted,  in 
fact,  of  a  sole  teacher  on  the  one  hand 
and  on  the  other  of  a  promise  of  $3,000 
a  year  to  meet  the  expenses  of  a  five 
years'  experiment.  For  two  years  it 
had  only  one  teacher  to  teach  all  that 
was  taught  and  do  all  that  was  done ;  for 
four  years  more  this  teacher  had  no  as- 
sistance except  in  the  way  of  relief  in 
one  or  two  minor  courses  of  instruction 
and  in  clerical  details.  It  was  six  years 
before  a  second  full  professor  was  add- 
ed ;  and  during  the  whole  of  its  existence 
it  has  been  painfully  cramped  for  lack 
of  sufficient  funds  to  carry  on  its  work, 
and  has  had  to  practice  in  every  direc- 
tion the  most  stringent  economy.  The 
only  point  in  my  mentioning  at  all  any 
of  the  handicaps  under  which  the  school 
has  worked,  up  to  the  present  day,  is 
in  the  fact  that  these  must  be  taken  into 
account  before  any  just  estimation  can 
be  made  of  what  it  has  thus  far  been 
able  to  accomplish;  and  that  they  fur- 
nish ground  for  the  expectation  that, 
with  these  removed  in  large  measure,  as 
they  now  soon  will  be,  the  school  will 

5 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOB  THE  MINISTRY. 

achieve     much,     larger     results     than 
hitherto. 

NUMBER   OF    STUDENTS. 

Coming  now  to  speak  of  what  has  been 
accomplished  in  the  last  ten  years  in 
the  process  of  building  up  a  school  to 
which  our  Western  churches  may  in 
future  look  for  many  of  their  ministers, 
I  have  first  to  report  that  its  published 
registers  show  that  within  this  time  a 
total  of  110  students  have  been  enrolled 
for  instruction  in  its  classes.  Of  these 
we  may  describe  thirty-eight  as  of  our 
own  constituency,  and  seventy-two  as 
outsiders.  Many  of  these  latter  have 
been  students  from  the  other  divinity 
schools  at  Berkeley ;  twelve  of  them  have 
been  students  from  the  university,  both 
coming  to  us  for  certain  special  courses ; 
and  some  twenty-five  have  been  men 
preaching  in  the  pulpits  of  other  denom- 
inations. I  make  no  account  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  persons  who  have, 
with  more  or  less  regularity,  attended 
our  classes  as  visitors,  and  have  gone 
away  enlightened,  encouraged,  or  in- 
spired by  the  instruction  received. 

INCIDENTAL  FORMS  OF  SERVICE. 

I  recall  that  in  the  course  of  an  early 
conference  on  the  possibilities  that  the 

6 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

school  might  be  expected  to  realize,  one 
of  its  founders,  Dr.  Horace  Davis,  said 
to  me  that  beside  training  ministers  for 
our  own  pulpits,  it  could  also  do  im- 
portant work  in  several  other  ways :  first, 
by  furnishing  a  place  where  ministers  of 
other  denominations  wishing  to  enter  our 
fellowship  might  become  familiar  with 
our  thought  and  spirit  and  be  helped 
past -what  is  usually  a  difficult  transi- 
tion, until  they  should  be  fitted  for  ac- 
ceptable service  with  our  churches;  sec- 
ond, by  contributing  to  the  education 
of  some  who  would  never  go  into  the 
ministry  at  all,  but  whom  the  school 
might  make  more  intelligent  and  ef- 
ficient laymen ;  third,  by  bringing  about  a 
more  liberal  spirit  in  men  who  might 
come  to  its  classes  from  other  denom- 
inations; and,  fourth,  by  promoting  the 
religious  welfare  of  the  great  Orient 
through  students  of  Oriental  races  who 
might  study  with  us;  and  he  expressed 
the  judgment  that  each  of  these  inci- 
dental forms  of  service  would  be  well 
worth  while.  We  have  already  done 
something  in  each  of  these  directions; 
for,  first,  we  have  had  among  our  stu- 
dents four  orthodox  ministers,  who  came 
to  us  to  be  "made  over"  and  prepared 
for  service  in  our  own  denomination,  and 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

we  might  easily  have  had  more  had  our 
scholarship  funds  been  more  ample;  sec- 
ond, about  two-thirds  of  the  students 
whom  we  have  counted  as  of  our  own 
will  remain  laymen,  and  not  a  few  of 
them  better  informed  and  more  devoted 
laymen  because  for  a  time  they  studied 
with  us;  third,  although  we  never  use 
our  class-rooms  for  proselyting  purposes, 
and  should  deem  it  hardly  honorable  in 
the  circumstances  to  do  so,  yet  there  are 
already  in  the  pulpits  of  other  denom- 
inations on  the  Pacific  Coast  perhaps 
two  score  ministers  who  will  at  least  have 
a  juster  appreciation  of  our  religious 
movement,  and  will  hold  a  less  hostile 
attitude  toward  us,  because  of  their 
having  been  for  a  time  members  of  our 
classes;  and,  fourth,  among  our  most 
earnest  and  appreciative  students  (not 
to  mention  a  much  larger  number  com- 
ing to  us  from  the  other  schools)  have 
been  four  from  Oriental  lands,  through 
whom  we  hope  to  have  made  some  con- 
tribution to  the  solution  of  the  religious 
problems  of  Japan,  China  and  India. 

GRADUATES. 

We  have  sent  into  the  field  ten  men, 
eight  of  them  as  graduates  and  one  after 
post-graduate  study.  Seven  of  these  are 

8 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

now  serving  churches,  one  is  unsettled, 
and  two  are  engaged  in  social  service 
though  meaning  later  to  resume  the  min- 
istry. Six  are  on  this  Coast,  three  in  the 
East,  and  one  in  Japan.  Four  of  our 
men  have  entered  service  on  the  Coast 
within  the  past  year,  while  one  here  and 
one  in  the  East  have  been  promoted  to 
higher  positions. 

STANDARDS   OF  THE   SCHOOL. 

From  the  first  it  was  determined  that 
whether  our  school  might  be  large  or 
small  its  standards  should  at  all  events 
be  high.  We  have  scrutinized  candi- 
dates for  admission  most  strictly,  have 
refrained  from  encouraging  far  more 
candidates  than  we  have  admitted,  and 
have  so  well  succeeded  that  only  one 
student  thus  far  has,  in  his  character, 
proved  a  disappointment  to  us.  From 
the  beginning  we  also  established  require- 
ments for  graduation  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible identical  with  those  of  the  Harvard 
Divinity  School,  and  have  conferred 
degrees  only  on  college  graduates.  At 
the  same  time  one  need  not  look  further 
than  our  own  pulpits  on  this  Coast  to  see 
that  the  lack  of  a  college  course  by  no 
means  necessarily  stands  in  the  way  of 
the  highest  'success  in  the  ministry. 


PACIFIC  UXITARIAX  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

Hence  we  also  provide  a  course  for  non- 
graduates,  requiring  them  to  supple- 
ment their  theological  work  in  the  school 
by  courses  at  the  University  just  across 
the  street  from  us.  We  have  the  past 
year  adopted  a  new  measure  for  stimu- 
lating a  high  quality  of  work  by  giving 
scholarship  aid  only  to  students  reaching 
grade  1  or  2,  and  have  had  the  most 
gratifying  results  from  it. 

INSTRUCTION. 

Our   association   with   the   University 
and  with  the  Pacific  Theological  Sem- 
inary, whose  courses  are  all  freely  open 
to  us,  is  of  the  greatest  advantage,  since 
in  effect  it  largely  increases  the  size  of 
our  faculty,  and  makes  it  possible  for 
us  to  offer  an  unusually  wide  range  of 
courses — in   all   over  ninety   courses   of 
instruction    in    eight    different    depart- 
ments of  study  directly  related  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry.    In  all  our  teach- 
ing we  strive  to  keep  in  view  the  prac- 
tical end;  and  while  we  aim  always  to 
cultivate   thorough  scholarship,  yet   we 
mean  to  ask  at  every  point,  What  has 
all  this  to  do  with  the  actual  work  of 
the   ministry?     And   our   courses   have 
been  repeatedly  and  highly  praised  for 
their  thoroughness  and  helpfulness,  not 


10 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  TOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

only  by  our  own  students  but  by  those 
who  have  come  from  outside  to  take 
them. 

LIBRARY. 

Next  to  instruction,  the  most  valuable 
agency  in  the  process  of  education  is  a 
good  library.  It  gives  me  much  satisfac- 
tion, therefore,  to  be  able  to  report  that 
we  have  in  ten  years  accumulated  a  col- 
lection of  some  9,000  volumes  and  over 
9,000  pamphlets.  It  has  been  well  se- 
lected, is  well  balanced,  and  well  suited 
to  our  needs,  and  I  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  in  the  line  of  Unitarian  his- 
tory and  literature,  to  which  we  have 
paid  particular  attention,  it  has  in  many 
ways  the  most  complete  collection  in  the 
world. 

FINANCIAL    SUPPORT. 

The  founders  of  the  school  early  felt 
justified  in  going  beyond  their  original 
promises  of  support,  and  in  the  ten  years 
under  review  contributed  for  mainte- 
nance over  $56,000,  and'  for  grounds, 
buildings  and  endowment  a  considerably 
larger  amount.  Numerous  other  friends, 
the  greater  number  of  them  in  the 
churches  on  this  Coast,  have  also  shown 
their  interest  in  the  school  and  their 

11 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

faith  in  its  work  by  gifts  amounting  to 
nearly  $28,000.  The  balance  sheet  for 
the  year  just  closed  shows  the  school 
in  possession  of  property  valued  at  over 
$87,000,  of  which  over  $51,000  are  funds 
invested  for  endowment  or  buildings, 
and  over  $27,000  are  represented  in  the 
present  educational  plant.  The  estates 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cutting  will,  it  is  ex- 
pected, be  entirely  settled  within  the 
present  year,  yielding  the  school  not  less 
than  $325,000  additional  for  endowment. 
Thus  the  last  lingering  doubt  will  be  set 
at  rest  as  to  the  permanency  of  the 
school.  When  this  expectation  shall 
have  been  realized  we  shall  need  first  to 
provide  the  school  with  adequate  build- 
ings for  its  library  and  class-rooms  in 
place  of  the  present  old  and  inflammable 
structure.  We  must  not,  however,  for 
this  purpose  to  any  great  extent  use  up 
funds  required  for  permanent  endow- 
ment, but  instead  must  call  upon  the 
people  of  our  churches  to  supplement 
the  beneficence  of  the  founders  by  gen- 
erous gifts  of  their  own.  Beyond 
amounts  already  given  for  the  purpose 
not  less  than  $35,000  will  still  be  needed. 
When  this  need  has  been  met  we  hope 
to  be  enabled  by  the  new  endowment  to 
call  another  professor  to  our  faculty. 

12 


PACIFIC  UNITAEIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

These  are  our  most  immediate  plans  and 
hopes. 

FUTURE  NEEDS. 

I  have  spoken  of  what  the  school  has 
been  able  to  accomplish  during  the  ten 
years  of  its  infancy,  and  have  brought 
the  story  down  to  the  point  where  it  is 
about  to  lay  aside  its  swaddling  clothes. 
Some  of  its  friends  who  have  watched 
it  most  carefully  have  been  appreciative 
enough  to  express  surprise  that  it  has 
been  able,  with  so  slender  resources  and 
equipment  thus  far,  to  accomplish  even 
so  much  as  I  have  said.  We  wish  the 
results  might  have  been  much  larger. 
We  hope  and  expect  that  in  the  next 
ten  years,  with  increased  resources  and 
facilities,  they  will  be  much  larger. 
What  can  the  churches  of  this  Confer- 
ence do  to  assist  toward  this  end?  In 
the  first  place,  having  interests  vitally 
bound  up  with  its  welfare  and  success, 
they  can  continue  to  give  it  their  hearty 
sympathy  and  loyal  support,  as  they 
have  so  generously  done  in  the  past.  It 
has  now  reached  the  point  where  it 
would  not  fail  even  without  these;  but 
with  them  it  will  succeed  in  fulfilling  its 
mission  much  sooner  and  more  com- 
pletely. 

13 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

In  the  second  place,  it  will  still  need 
material  assistance.  I  have  spoken  in 
comparatively  large  figures,  but  no  one 
that  knows  the  requirements  of  educa- 
tional institutions  needs  to  be  told  that 
it  will  still  be  far  from  affluent,  and  that 
its  needs  are  sure  to  grow  faster  than  its 
resources.  In  this  very  year  it  has  suf- 
fered sharply  for  want  of  sufficient  schol- 
arship funds,  and  for  this  cause  has  been 
obliged  to  lose  one  student  and  has  bare- 
ly escaped  losing  a  second.  This  will 
remain,  as  before,  a  steady  object  for 
the  generosity  both  of  the  Alliances  and 
of  individuals. 

In  the  third  place,  and  most  vitally  of 
all,  the  churches  can  help  the  school  by 
turning  toward  it  the  choicest  and  most 
promising  of  their  sons.  This  matter  will 
depend  upon  two  co-operating  agencies: 
the  ministers  and  the  parents.  First  of 
all  upon  the  ministers.  The  school's 
doors  will  of  course  be  open  wide  to 
every  worthy  applicant;  and  it  will  do 
all  in  its  power  to  discover  and  interest 
candidates.  But  in  the  last  analysis,  in 
almost  every  case  a  young  man  feels  at- 
tracted to  the  ministry  because  his  own 
minister  has,  by  deed  or  word,  made  him 
feel  that  its  work  is  the  noblest  work  to 
which  he  can  give  his  life.  And,  further- 

14 


PACIFIC  UNITARIAN  SCHOOL  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

more,  if  our  school  is  to  be  sought  by  as 
large  a  proportion  of  college  men  as  we 
hope,  a  double  responsibility  for  inspir- 
ing and  interesting  these  will  rest  on  our 
ministers  at  seats  of  learning ;  first  of  all 
the  universities  at  Berkeley  and  Palo 
Alto,  Eugene  and  Seattle,  and  after  that 
the  colleges  at  Spokane,  Tacoma,  Port- 
land, ,Salem,  San  Jose,  Los  Angeles  and 
Pomona.  The  share  of  the  parents  will 
be  to  sympathize  with  and  encourage 
every  such  ambition  on  the  part  of  their 
sons,  although  sad  and  surprising  to  say, 
cases  are  by  no  means  unknown  in  which 
parents,  themselves  devoted  to  the 
church  and  loyal  to  their  ministers,  seem 
to  dissuade  their  sons  from  this  worthy 
choice. 

The  founders  of  the  school  have  in  the 
past  ten  years  written  their  names  high 
up  on  the  roll  of  the  patrons  of  liberal 
Christianity  in  this  country.  They  have 
conferred  a  great  and  lasting  benefit  on 
the  whole  cause  of  our  churches  on  this 
Coast.  We  have  as  yet  begun  to  see  only 
the  scanty  first  fruits  of  the  harvest ;  but 
if  we  still  go  on  to  bear  our  due  share  in 
the  labor,  the  full  harvest  cannot  fail. 


15 


14  DAY  USE 

BTURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


I  o 


IfcfOLO 


•3  PM  7  0 


939058 


4079 


YC15931C 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


